And I didn't mean to imply at all that the finish issues were widespread, just reporting the obvious issues with the one I owned. Just a personal preference, not a quality issue. I've owned numerous guitars with various neck profiles including V's, but I just couldn't bond with this one, something about the neck just wasn't comfortable.
Not at all disputing what you said, but my cadillac was a 2005 and the neck was pretty full for a V, and just not very comfortable for me. If I ever thought about another Dean, I'd make sure I had a chance to play it and scrutinize it before buying - I wouldn't go the internet route based on my experiences. I've also played some Hardtail's that I thought were on a par with some of the PRS's that I've played and owned. However, I know there are good ones out there as I 've played them - a friend of mine had a Time Capsule V that was one of the nicest V's by any manufacturer that I've ever played. I'd played a number of others prior that I thought were very nice, that's why I bought the Cadillac sight unseen via the Internet and unfortunately ended up quite disappointed. It did sound pretty good though I just couldn't get over the neck issue. I couldn't bond with the neck, it was chunky (which I usually like) and rather wide and in the long term for some reason just not very comfortable for me (hard to pin down, justdid not feel right and I couldn't bond with it at all).
It was a really nice looking guitar(very nice dark blue flame top, gold hardware), but when you looked really closely at the finish especially on the back there were numerous flaws, orange peel, etc visible - very disappointing. I had a USA made Time Capsule Cadillac about two years ago that I purchased new.
My experience with the USA made Deans has been mixed - quality seems to be variable.